St. Charles Easts Kendall Stephens has accomplished a number of things during the course of his 4-year high school varsity basketball career.

On Saturday night, the 6-foot-5 senior guard added tournament Most Valuable Player honors to his ever-growing list of accolades.

But most importantly, Stephens helped the Saints (4-0) capture their own Thanksgiving tourney title for the first time in more than 30 years by pouring in a game-high 30 points during a 61-42 triumph over cross-town rival St. Charles North (3-1) at the 54th annual Ron Johnson Tournament.

Stephens connected on 4 of his 6 first-quarter shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, as the Saints jumped out to a 17-8 lead.

That included a 10-1 run during the first 3-plus minutes before a boisterous home crowd, as North Stars coach Tom Poulin was forced to burn an early timeout.

We came out wanting to give them the first punch and we hit them with a 10-1 run, said Stephens.

All-tournament teammate Dom Adduci (10 points) hit a pair of tough shots in the second quarter, as the Saints built a double-digit lead at 27-16 by halftime.

Stephens and Adducis 18 combined points were 2 more than the entire North Stars first-half scoring output.

While the North Stars struggled with shooting woes, hitting just 4 of their 16 field-goal attempts and misfiring on all 10 3-point tries, they also committed 11 first-half turnovers against the Saints 1-3-1 zone defense.

Our defense has been our staple so far this year, said Saints coach Patrick Woods. The 1-3-1 is bothering people a lot.

The defensive change came about this past summer and dates back to Woods coaching days at Ridgewood.

When I was at Ridgewood, I had small teams, the coach said. We were playing New Trier and they had three Division 1 guys 6-10 across and we couldnt do anything against it.

Im a man-to-man coach, added Woods. I believe in man-to-man but Im also not dumb. We realized that our lineup could consist of four guys over 6-5 so we started toying around with the idea this summer. I just think it is real tough to handle.

After junior guard Alec Goetz (11 points) split a pair of free throws to cut Norths deficit to 9 at 28-19 early in the third quarter, the Saints countered with a 7-0 surge courtesy of Stephens.

First, he connected on a tough 14-foot fade-away jumper, then added a 3-pointer off a feed from sophomore guard Cole Gentry before hitting a runner in the lane to extend the Saints lead to 35-19.

As I told him yesterday, its kind of the Kendall Stephens Ive been waiting for since I got here, said second-year coach Woods. I think he showed spurts of it last year but hes had four rock-solid games now. You cant even tell hes hurt (torn labrum). Its crazy.

Senior guard Quinten Payne scored 15 of his team-high 22 points in the second half for the North Stars. Paynes 2 free throws pulled the North Stars within single digits at 41-32 with 7:02 remaining but Poulin still didnt like his teams body language.

I wouldnt question anybodys effort but I didnt like our attitudes as the game went along, he said. There was a dead ball and timeout and I feel like it was 19 (points down) instead of 9.

From there, the Saints doubled their pleasure, outscoring the North Stars 20-10 the rest of the way.

The North Stars, who made just 1 of 17 3-point attempts, were at times unrecognizable to their own coach.

We didnt play well at all, admitted Poulin. We didnt run our stuff. We didnt do what got us to the championship game. I was somewhat pleased defensively with our effort but offensively we did nothing that you would find in our playbook, and I thought we kind of panicked a little bit. We tried to get all of the points back in one possession.

AJ Washington added 6 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while David Mason added 5 points for the Saints.

It was a slugfest out there, I thought, said Woods. Were probably going to see each other three more times so we may have won the battle but the war isnt over.